A Beautiful Day for a 12-Miler (Recipe: Spinach, Mushroom and Walnut Pasta with Pesto)

I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the nice weather this weekend if you had it.  With the exception of some rain on Sunday morning, Raleigh had beautiful weather!  Even Wisconsin had decent weather this weekend!

This afternoon Shawn and I ran 12 miles on the Greenway.  It was 58* and sunny when we started.  Just beautiful.  And there were so many people and dogs out catching a glimpse of spring before it gets cold again (which it seems to be doing right now).

I think there were several children who received bikes for Christmas who hadn’t had a chance to ride them outside before today!  It was just so nice to be outside and not be cold.  And we had a pretty good run!  I was pleased with our pace and our level of effort.

Enjoy the warm weather while you can!

Yesterday I saw the movie American Sniper.  It was extremely well done, and I highly recommend it.  I don’t recommend sitting in the 3rd row at the theater, so get there plenty early, but the movie was fantastic.  Now I have added the book to my “to read” list.  I didn’t realize that it was originally a book!  Right now I’m reading Unbroken so I can see that movie with A soon.

I also tried this little sandwich shop for lunch called Serendipity with some friends yesterday.  It is super cute and yummy if you’re in Cary and need to grab a bite to eat.

So last weekend A and I dog sat for Halo while Callie went to Athens to play flyball.  Halo was a huge fan of A.

                                                                                                           

We also had a conversation that went like this:

Me:  I want to run the Dopey Challenge, but I want someone to do it with me…[me looking at A who is petting Halo]

A: You’re asking Halo to run the Challenge with you? [to Halo] Are you up for that??

Amanda and Geoff, I guess A volunteered Halo to run 48.6 miles with me!  She didn’t seem very excited…

And all the dogs seem to be huge fans of this new chair in my living room.

Oh!  And last week, A sent beautiful flowers to my office!  They made the week so much brighter especially since it was so dreary outside!  He’s the bestest!

Fun Fact: There was an 8.4% increase in the number of people swimming for fitness over the past year making it one of the fastest-growing workouts.

Quote of the Day:

“Running’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet…And when you’ve finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be.” -Paul Maurer

So, after my long run tonight I was craving some carbs.  I didn’t really know what to make so I threw together random ingredients I had at the house, and that was dinner!  And it actually turned out pretty tasty!!

Spinach, Mushroom and Walnut Pasta with Pesto

Ingredients

– 8 to 10 ounces of angel hair pasta

– 2 teaspoons olive oil

– 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms

– 6 ounces of fresh baby spinach

– 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

– 2 ounces prepared pesto

Directions

– Boil pasta until done.

– While the pasta is boiling, saute the spinach and mushrooms in the olive oil.  Toss in the walnuts at the end to toast them.

– Combine the pasta and spinach mixture together and add the pesto.  Top with Parmesan.